


The miles that separate us (can never truly keep us apart)

by eternalqueenofthemyscira



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Angst with a happy-ish ending, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27108058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalqueenofthemyscira/pseuds/eternalqueenofthemyscira
Summary: Jamie and Owen have been having strange dreams of Bly. They decide that they need to go back. Together. Just one last time.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie, Hannah Grose/Owen Sharma
Comments: 14
Kudos: 135





	The miles that separate us (can never truly keep us apart)

Jamie knew the sixth day in a row that she dreamed of Bly that she had to do something about it. Never in her life had she been one to let a problem just sit until it solved itself; she had to find the solution herself. 

The trip to Bly was one she knew she could have done on her own, but deep down she knew she didn’t want to. She had last been there five years ago on what she could only ever describe as the worst day of her life. On that day, she had been alone. Maybe this time, she wouldn’t have to be. Owen was busy with his restaurant as always, but she knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to make the trip with her if she needed him. 

She took a deep breath and reached out for the glass of water she kept on her bedside table. A quick look into the water revealed no reflection but her own, so she gulped down the whole glass. Setting down the empty glass, she willed herself to get up to the phone. She may not have called Owen often, but she still had his phone number memorized. Traversing through her flat in the dark was no easy task, but she still managed. She always had. 

Just as she was about to pick up the receiver, the phone started to ring. Startled, it took her a moment to answer the phone. 

“Hello?” She said, more of a question than a greeting. 

“Jamie? God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize how late it was over there.” Owen said. 

Jamie twisted the phone line around her finger, “Oh, don’t worry about it, mate. Everything alright over there?” 

“Um,” there was a long pause, so long that Jamie was almost sure he had left. “I don’t even know anymore, if I’m honest. I can’t think straight. I’ve been having these dreams the past few days.” 

Dreams of the people they had lost at Bly. There was no need for him to say their names, Jamie knew what he meant. She had the same dreams. 

She cleared her throat, “Owen, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I’ve been having dreams too. I was just about to call you.” 

More silence. She can faintly hear him breathing through the line, just like those prank calls all those years ago. 

“Well, you always were the one with the ideas. What should we do?” Owen asked. 

She can feel her shoulders tense at his question. She knew they had to go back, just once, just to prove to themselves it was over. To allow themselves to grasp the memories they made at Bly, even the ones they wish they’d forget. 

“We gotta go back,” she whispered, knowing that once she said it out loud she could never take it back. 

She could hear Owen take in a deep breath before responding, “Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. When do you want to meet?” 

“As soon as we can, I guess. I’ll take the first plane I can out there.” 

“So will I. I’ll give you a call once I get here.” 

“Be safe, Owen. I’ll see you soon.” 

“You too, Jamie.” 

The line clicked off and Jamie let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. She ran her fingers through her graying hair and turned towards her bedroom. It was time to get ready for a trip she never thought she’d be making again. 

***

As Jamie steps onto the sidewalk, she is greeted by the blaring of street traffic. Owen had called her about half an hour ago to tell her he had already arrived and would pick her up. She was grateful to him for that. She knew that this wasn’t a drive she could do on her own. Now, it was just a matter of finding the man. 

“God, where is that bloody idiot?” she mumbled to herself. After all of those years in America, she had forgotten just how gloomy England was. The sunlight was barely poking through the thick clouds, making an already difficult day even more depressing. 

A car pulling up next to her pulled her from her thoughts. Gripping her suitcase, she glanced into the driver’s seat to be greeted by the familiar, if aged a bit, face of Owen. They had both changed since they had last seen each other, in more ways than just physical. 

Pushing open the car door, Owen greeted her with a warm smile, “Jamie, it’s been so long.” He extended his arms out for a hug, and Jamie smiled to herself as she stepped into his embrace. 

“It’s good to see you, mate.” She felt the weight off her chest begin to lift just being around him. 

He pulled away from her with an equally genuine smile across his face, “Look at you! Aged like a fine wine, you have. Can’t say the same for myself,” he joked.

Jamie couldn’t help but laugh at him. She’d been sure his crappy jokes would’ve faded by now, but it seemed she couldn’t have been further from wrong. 

“Let me pop the trunk for you, you can put your bag in the back and then we can get a move on.” 

Jamie nodded and moved to the back of his car. Placing her bag in the trunk, she stared into her reflection in the nearby shop window. She certainly did not look like a woman about to go confront the place where her life went wrong. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she moved to the passenger seat. 

As she opened the door, she saw Owen slip a bouquet of flowers into the backseat of the car. It was stunning, almost as gorgeous as one she could’ve made. The red of the roses simultaneously brought out the sharpness of the white of the carnations. 

He gave her a sheepish smile when he noticed her, “Sorry I didn’t buy these from you. I, uh, had a feeling they wouldn’t last so well on the flight.” 

“Ah, no worries. I wouldn’t have wanted anything to happen to them either.”

Owen nods and puts the car into drive. And so begins their long drive back to Bly. 

***

The car ride is long and Jamie isn’t able to perk up until they reach the countryside. Despite knowing what’s to come, she still has an appreciation for the beauty of it all. She still remembers what it was like to drive out here for the first time. God, she was so young back then. Often, she would wonder to herself if she would have taken the job if she had known what was to come. 

The atmosphere between the two could not have been more different than the last time they were driving to Bly together. That air was frantic, a gut feeling in both their stomachs drawing them back to the people they loved most. 

Jamie twirled her wedding band around her finger, anxiously willing the car to go faster. She stole a glance at Owen’s hand tightly gripping the steering wheel for dear life. His hands were empty of any band. Jamie tore her eyes off his hands, realizing then just how lucky she was to have had as much time with Dani as she did. 

Owen broke the long, comfortable silence between them, “You know, I always did tell myself I would never come back here. I didn’t want to be stuck in the same gravity well that kept everyone else here. I only wish I could’ve left under better circumstances. That we both could’ve left under better circumstances.” 

She smiled sadly and nodded, “I know, mate. But at least we still have each other.” 

“Yeah, well, seems more like you’re gonna be stuck with me for a while.” 

Jamie chuckled lightly and returned her attention to the window. They were closer than she had thought, already she could see the outline of the house. 

The remaining few minutes of the drive were spent in sharp silence, both of them preparing for what they were about to come face. She had driven on this road so many times, but knowing this would be the last time she would ever do it laid heavily on her heart. 

Jamie held her breath as they pulled into the long drive. The manor had been overgrown by ivy and been damaged by countless English storms. It didn’t even look like the same place. It was as if the manor was beginning to reflect all of the damage that had occurred on its grounds. 

Owen slowed and eventually stopped the car at the front of the house, in his usual parking place. How he had remembered it all these years later was beyond Jamie, but for him it was probably instinct. As she climbed out of the car, she was greeted by the cold air that forever seemed to hang around the manor. 

She could feel herself being pulled to where Dani was, at the bottom of that good-for-nothing lake. Owen too seemed drawn off to the well, where he and Jamie had found Hannah on their last night here. He gently fixed the flowers in the bouquet that had gone wild in the drive. 

“Um,” she broke the silence. “I’ll meet you back here in like an hour? Is that good?” 

He nods quickly, “Yeah. Yeah, that’s good with me. Be careful.” 

“I will. You too.” 

He moved past her on his way to the well as she moved toward the lake. The chill in the air ran through her bones as she made her way to the lake. She had never liked the lake, it was always foggy and smelled. Now, knowing that it had taken the love of her life, she wished she would’ve taken buckets to the blasted thing. 

Now she stood in front of the lake. It was just as ugly as it had always been. She walked to its edge and kneeled down next to it. Her reflection in it was barely visible through the grime, but it was clear she was alone. Just as she began to run her fingers through the water, she heard water splashing from the middle of the lake. 

At first she was sure that she had finally lost her mind, but eventually a head of blonde hair began making its way toward her. The figure moved powerfully through the water right towards where she was standing. It had to have been Dani. All of her features had been washed away by time. Her beautiful, perfect face was now nothing. 

“Dani!” she screamed. Deep down she knew she couldn’t hear her, but she had to try. 

Dani broke from the water and began walking toward the house. Just for a moment, Jamie sat frozen on the muddy ground. Dani was dead and she would never get her back, but this may be her last chance to ever see her again. Jamie pushed herself from the muddy ground towards Dani. At least she could walk with her for a little bit.  
As she caught up to Dani, she tried to think of what she wanted to say. She had spent the last few years so alone, often wondering what she would tell Dani if she had the chance. Now that she did, her mind was completely blank. 

“Hey there, Poppins. I hope you can hear me in there,” Jamie finally spoke. No response. She had a feeling she wouldn’t get one, but it still tore at her heart. 

“I’ve really missed you. I can’t even begin to explain to you how much I’ve missed you. It’s like I was finally able to build a happy life for myself, and then it got ripped out of my hands.”

They now stood at the doors to the manor, which hung wide open, almost as if inviting them back inside. Dani’s dried, muddy footprints were tracked through the house and Jamie’s were about to be added right next to hers. 

“There’s not enough time in the world for me to tell you how much I love you, but I guess I better give it a shot. I’d do anything to have gotten one more day with you. To have watched crappy television shows, drunken your frankly terrifyingly bad attempts at tea, any of it.” 

For a split second she thinks she hears a soft laugh from Dani and a smile grows across Jamie’s face. They reached the giant staircase, where Jamie had to walk behind Dani. Not like that was going to stop her from talking and Dani from hopefully listening. 

“Flower shop is doing well. It’s winter back home, so it’s a little harder to get everything I want. But you know me, I always get what I want. Well. Almost everything, at least.” 

They made their way into the forbidden wing of the Manor, which Jamie had never been to. It always felt too private, too empty for her to be able to invade. 

“Guess we’ve always been rule breakers, ey love? The trouble you would’ve gotten me into for this. It would’ve been worth it eventually, could’ve been a great laugh.” 

Finally, they stopped in front of a bed. There was a plain, white sheet draped on top that Jamie could just make out muddy handprints on the edge. She gently lifted her hand to place on top of the mark. Dani’s hand, that she was sure of. 

She turned to see Dani leaving the room and had to rush after her. She wasn’t going to waste a moment of being with her again. 

“Owen’s here too. Paying his respects to Hannah. He’s been doing well, I think. His restaurant is doing as amazing as ever. He called me last night. Turns out we’ve both been having weird dreams about this place. It was my idea to come back, I’m proud to say.” 

They left the wing and went down the stairs back to outside the manor. She was running out of time. 

“Flora and Miles have been doing well. They’re both adults now, which I can hardly believe. They’ll always be little kids to me. They still don’t remember you or Hannah, though. I guess that’s for the best, they don’t need those memories haunting them for the rest of their lives.”

It seemed to her that they had walked faster getting back to the lake than before, but that didn’t matter now. Now, tears streamed down her face at the thought of losing Dani again. She wasn’t sure she could stand to watch Dani walk into that lake and not come back to her. 

“Dani. Dani, please. Stay with me. Please.” 

For a moment, a heart-wrenching moment, Jamie thought Dani was going to get back in the water. Instead, Dani reached her hand towards Jamie’s. She ran her fingers across the wedding band that she’d found buried in the potting soil all those years ago, gently tracing the shapes in it. 

“Dani, I’m so sorry that we didn’t have more time together. I promised you that we’d take everything one day at a time, and we have. But now the only days I have left are waiting for us to finally be together again.” 

Dani moved her fingers from the wedding band into Jamie’s hand to squeeze it three times. That was their sign, squeezing each other’s hand three times had always meant “I love you.” 

Jamie couldn’t help but break down into sobs. She felt Dani pulling out of her grasp, which yanked her back into reality. This would be the last time she was with Dani. Jamie tightened her hold onto Dani’s hand and didn’t plan on letting go until she had to. 

“I love you too, Poppins. I’ll see you again someday.” 

Dani stepped into the lake and Jamie knew it was time for her to let go. As much as she didn’t want to, as much as she wanted to hold on for the rest of her life, she knew it was what Dani would want. So she did. Her hand had never felt so cold and alone by her side as she watched Dani descend back to the lake. 

Jamie breathed slow and hard. She sat back down on the small beach of the lake, trying to give herself a moment to process everything that had just happened. She couldn’t have been sitting there long, just staring blankly into the spot where Dani had disappeared, but it felt like hours had passed. A hand dropping on her shoulder yanked her out of her thoughts. 

“Blimey, Owen,” she gasped. As she turned towards him, visible tear tracks were going down his face. She probably looked no better. 

Without a word, he put out a hand to help pull her up. Before she was even steady on her feet, he enveloped her in a tight hug. They stayed like that for a long time, wrapped in the embrace of the only other person who shared even a semblance of their same pain.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed this! This ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Dani and Jamie ripped my heart out, so I knew I had to write something for those lovebirds. Any kudos and comments are very much appreciated :)


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